Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad

This Story: Season 1 Episode 7 (production code 107)
DSC Overall: Episode 7
Trek Overall: Story 690, Episode 733
Airdate: 29 Oct 2017
Written by Aron Eli Colette & Jesse Alexander
Directed by David M. Barrett

Notes

• This episode was directed by David Barrett.  He was the first director who directed one of the prior series to direct on Discovery.  He also directed the Enterprise episode “Divergence“.  He would direct one more Discovery episode – “Saints of Imperfection“.
• This episode has no pre-title scene.  That time is spent solely on recap.  The last time that happened was the TNG pilot, “Encounter at Farpoint“.
• Harry Mudd’s wife Stella appears here in the flesh (Katherine Barrell).  While the character did appear in the TOS episode “I, Mudd“, that was an android.  It is the only appearance the character has in this series.
• Apparently the outfit worn by Detmer in the party scene was based off of something Seven of Nine wore.
• The first episode of Discovery with no Klingons in it.
• The method Mudd uses to destroy Discovery was also used in TNG’s “Night Terrors“.
• The Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” is played in one scene in this episode.
• In one of the alternate realities, Ash Tyler & Michael Burnham kiss.  While that happens the song “Love and Happiness” by Al Green plays.
• The Betazoid race gets a name drop here.
• The last (full) episode with Rainn Wilson as Harcourt Fenton Mudd.  He would play the character once more in one of the shorts from the “Short Trek” series – “The Escape Artist“.

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